VFW post shut down in Davie

rift reflects national crisis

Members of Veteran of Foreign Wars Post 9697 stand in front of their VFW hall,… (Sarah Dussault, Sun Sentinel )

December 14, 2011|By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

DAVIE For the last 14 years, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9697 on Griffin Road has been a dingy yet comfortable refuge for a graying group of warriors who shared a military history and a lot of tall tales.

As long as the beer was cold and the mixed drinks flowed, no one seemed to mind the shabby condition of the little barroom, which proudly announces on a sign out front that it is the home post of state commander Dan Duffy.

But now the doors are padlocked, the pool table covered up, and the post and its commander have been suspended by none other than Duffy himself, who cited the group's failure to pay rent and to offer community outreach programs.

"I sure don't want to shut down my home post," said Duffy, 65, a Marine Corps veteran. "But I have to do the right thing."

In part, the squabble within the ranks of the VFW here reflects problems faced across the nation, officials said. Although VFW officials have made an effort to attract younger combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, few join and many of those don't stay long.

"Part of our problem as an organization is that there are those cliques within a post who think it's their own club," said Matt Claussen, national membership director for the VFW. "But the VFW is so much bigger than the four walls they have a canteen in."

Claussen said he did not know the particulars of the Post 9697 rift, but the problems cited sounded familiar. "We have to change it from a bar to a place where families could get some support," he said. "Make it a welcoming place for families."

Duffy said he and other Florida VFW officials shuttered Post 9697 on Nov. 19 because the administration of now-suspended commander Paul Dombroski failed to pay $8,855 in rent over the last six months, depleted the relief fund of all but $25, and fell far behind in community programs, such as the annual elementary school essay contest.

Duffy said the post had become little more than a watering hole for a handful of its 491 members.

Dombroski disputes that. "Basically, state commander Duffy has been wanting to close us down for years," said Dombroski, 64, a Navy veteran who also served in Vietnam.

Dombroski has appealed the suspension to the VFW's national office in Kansas City.

Davie mayor Judy Paul said she was "very distressed" to hear of the post's closing. "He [Duffy] didn't have to do this, especially before the holidays," she said. "This has surprised me no end."

The national VWF has seen its numbers decline for 18 straight years, from a peak of 2.1 million members in the early 1990s to 1.5 million today, said Claussen. Some of the organization's membership woes can be explained by mortality.

World War II veterans, once the mainstay of the organization, die at the rate of 740 a day, according to recent statistics issued by the Veterans Aministration. Most Vietnam veterans are in their 60s and 70s now.

Last year, some 40,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts joined local VFW chapters, said Claussen, but 50 percent soon dropped out and rarely stopped by the canteen, as the post's bar is called.

There were some younger members at Post 9697, including Iraq war veteran Andrew Boshears, 27, of Dania Beach. A fulltime student at Broward College and president of the campus Student Veterans Association, Boshears said he was comfortable at the post.

"They helped me through some tough times," he said.

Boshears said he had hoped to attract others of his generation to the post, but few followed, in part because the place was smoky and uninviting.

"None of the canteens are very attractive," said Boshears, who has also belonged to posts in Hollywood and Key West. "And they should be more than cheap places to drink."

While Dombroski disputes the relief fund was as low as $25, he does admit it was low because he used it to help veterans in need. And he, along with Paul, say the membership was active in the community, hosting Veterans Day barbecues, providing ceremonial color guards, and marching in parades.

"It was home to a lot of people who enjoyed themselves in there," said Dombroski, known by his nickname, Rowdy. "It was not a stuffed shirt place."

Dombroski and member Stu McLees expressed particular outrage over how the post was closed. McLees, who was at the bar that Saturday afternoon, said a state VFW official walked in and ordered him and about five others to put down their drinks and get out.

With that, the doors were locked.

"It's a rotten shame the way it was done, really wrong," said McLees, 61.

Duffy said the building that housed the post will be emptied, cleaned, and the keys handed to the property owner by March 31.

After the state VFW's investigation is complete, Duffy said officials would make a decision on revoking the post's charter, reactivating the post, or merging it with another nearby.